Foundations for Farming Training with Steve Manhanga

About 40 farmers/church leaders attended a Foundations for Farming training which was held at the Free Methodist Church in Bulawayo yesterday. It's always amazing how eager men and women are to learn 'new' things. Most of the people who attended were from Brethren in Christ Church from different neighbourhoods in Bulawayo. e.g. Mpopoma, Entumbane, Cowdray Park and Ngubo etc , as well as from Entumbane Presbytarian Church and Free Methodist Church.

Stephen started by painting a picture of where people are at with farming with the aim of laying down foundations and building from there. He started by reading from Genesis 2 where God put man in the garden of Eden and man's first job was tending to the garden. He encouraged the farmers to shift their mindsets from simply subsistence farming to that of making a profit. He said there was nothing wrong with making a profit.(Proverbs 14:23; Titus 3:14) Farming is not a 'lazy' mans occupation but it's a serious business and is hard work. We all need to eat and we need to produce food.

Steve encouraged the farmers that Gods ways are the best ways. God is the best farmer. We need to be faithful (Matthew 25:14 - 30) with what we have been given and God will add to us as this leads to fruitfulness. Stephen also shared abit on giving (Luke 6:38) - We 'give' to 'give', trusting God to give us our needs in His time and measure. Giving is the key to high standards - time, energy, effort in doing something well.
Stephen then shared on the 4 principles of Foundations for Farming:
1. On Time: plant before November 25th. 22nd December is the longest day in the year i.e. the plants get the most sunlight, heat units and potential of rain at a crucial time in its growth.
2. At Standard: Everything God made high standards and the key to that is wholeheartedness.
3. Without Wastage: Steve asked the farmers to give examples of 'without wastage' and they did really well i.e using left over sadza to make Mahewu (health, nutritious drink), vegetable skins, leaves etc to compost.



Farmers reading the rain gauge

4. With Joy: When we are on time, doing things to a good standard and without wastage, hope begins to rise. Hope leads to joy. (Nehemiah 8:10)

After lunch, we all went outside and Steve did some demonstrations on how to read a rain gauge and the spacing for planting maize, how to plant maize, thinning etc. That was really good as well.





 
Throughout the training sessions, there were lots of questions which Steve answered brilliantly. It was a good day and the farmers learnt many 'new' things.

By Molly Manhanga